7 Feng Shui Mistakes You Don't Want To Make

What we all want is great energy, lots of great opportunities, excellent health, happiness, and, of course, love. In feng shui we learn that your environment should be “lit up” with those notions, desires and energetic goodness to help usher them into your life with greater abundance.

Vibrant, personalized and thriving décor.

Feng Shui is all about specifically altering your personal experience of places to make them more positive and more prosperous to you overall. However, there are more than a few generally bad feng shui mistakes that universally screw up your vibe!

If you are reading this list and think to yourself, “Oh no! I totally have #5 happening and there’s NO WAY to FIX IT in my home!!!” or something of the like, there are ways to fix your personal mistakes. While it’s very tempting to “blame” your home — (“its not my fault, the bedroom came this small so there’s nothing I could do!” etc, etc…)—remember that you selected your environment or were presented with it for a reason. We choose both the greatness and shortcomings of our spaces... and with some good feng shui, now we can change the less than lovely things we settled for in the real estate shuffle. If you truly feel stuck without answers to how to change your problems, please feel free to ask questions and I’ll try to answer them as specifically as I can. The last thing I want to do is tell you that something is wrong and leave you worried about it. I am all about solutions, after all. And on that note, lets start talking common feng shui problems!

1. Smooshing one side of your bed tight up against a wall. 

I write about this frequently. Your bed in the corner does not allow for prosper “energy circulation” when you are sleeping. We sleep to rejuvenate, and this bed position undercuts rejuvenation a bit. The bed-in-a-corner position is also extremely vulnerable, because you could not escape the bed easily in an attack situation. Now, I realize it is unlikely that you will get attacked in bed, but biologically if we have these less-ideal bed positions we will always feel vulnerable and will not be as well-rested intrinsically. Also, yes, to state the obvious, without room for a lover to enter and exit your bed of the opposite side from you, this bed position is a big disadvantage in the relationship department!

2. Dark Hallways & Entrances are really sad and even terrifying!

While I can talk for several hours about the implications of hallways and foyers, your entrance to your home, be it formal or not, needs to be bright and very clear. If you think its charming to have people duck under a mass of tree branches to find your door, or venture down a dark pathway or enter into your pitch black home and scramble to find a light you are mistaken on all counts! Even the less-extreme case of bad vibes in an entranceway are super catastrophic to your happy home. You need light, bright, positive entranceways to create positive experiences of your space. Color, light, artwork, maybe even gardening and a little cleaning up can make your entranceway shine.

3. TV in the bedroom is a no-no.

First off, it’s a relationship-killer. After all, if you are having a relationship with your TV why do you need a partner in life? Now, for those of you who managed to have both a TV and a spouse in the bedroom, I don’t care if you are happily married right now, the TV is a bad-vibe-producing machine on an electrical level (emitting EMF rays that disrupt your immune system amongst other things!) and on a psychological level, you are being hypnotized and brainwashed as you drop into your most impressionable states of mind as you drift off to bed. Do you want to have the latest dish detergent and McDonalds shake somehow embedded in your psyche? Don’t sleep with the TV on! Some people tell me “we only watch positive things before bed,” but then struggle to tell me what these positive things are!

4. Leaving your slightly faulty plumbing as it is for a while.

My motto at home: if it’s even slightly broken, fix it immediately. Where plumbing is concerned, fix it faster than immediately! Your personal plumbing reflects the energetic flow surrounding you. That said, drainage problems, leaks and other plumbing issues are usually mirrored in your financial life, your personal energy or even your health. Don’t let “little plumbing things” go; fix them ASAP!

5. Terrifying art in gathering spaces.

I know I promote the absolute predominance of your personal aesthetic, but guys, some of you like things that scare the rest of us. Taxidermy, strange antique medical paraphernalia, images of war, death, post-apocalyptic dreamscapes: if you truly love it, its for your personal library, or a small area of your place that scan be screened off when guest come over if they are not 100% like-minded. Living rooms are best when they create a sense of abundant welcome; think with that guiding principle in mind!

6. Mirrors facing one another.

Oh, I am so mad at my building for doing this in my glamorous lobby—it is the one thing I will not miss when I move! Two mirrors facing one another on opposite walls create a vortex of energy bouncing between the two that is challenging, stuck and very aggressive. This is an instant vibe-killer for sure, especially when the mirrors are large that face one another.

Fresh, live, even dewy houseplants are the only kind you should have anywhere near you!

7. Dead plants in your home or on the patio.

If you want to send the message that life enters your home to die, by all means keep dead plants everywhere! Otherwise, please keep up with your houseplants. It takes very little to plug a watering schedule into the calendar of your smart phone these days. A corollary to this one: don’t let silk plants get covered in dust. It’s just like killing them, letting them sit dirty in your office or your home. Plants should always be thriving, well-maintained and “happy” looking!

The great thing about feng shui is that you can always improve any space, and it’s usually quite easy to do. I say this as I semi-patiently wait for the plumber to fix a leak! Good luck in making your own positive moves!